Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Johannes Brahms (Composer), Riccardo Chailly (Conductor), Gewandhaus Orchestra (Orchestra), Nelson Freire (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Nelson Freire
• Orchestra: Gewandhaus Orchestra
• Conductor: Riccardo Chailly
• Composer: Johannes Brahms
• Audio CD (May 9, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B000E6TYI4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,020 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BRAHMS,J.
Title: CON PNO 1/2
Street Release Date: 05/09/2006
Domestic
Genre: CLASSICAL COMPOSERS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pure vintage recordings setting the standard, May 27, 2006

By 

Joris Verhelst (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

There are so many recordings of these two giants of piano concertos. Both works of epic stature need both an excellent soloist and orchestra. These works of symphonic strength need an orchestra that is not just an accompanying partner for the soloist who needs for his part intelligence, power, balance, sensitivity and poetry(!)in order to tackle the ongoing massive orchestral flow.

Among the great recordings of these piano concertos rank certainly Leon Fleisher and George Szell on Sony (a violent and passionate orchestra - need one say more with a monument as Szell and his beloved Cleveland Orchestra? - and a poetic pianist as Fleisher who marvelled and sculpted these works from his childhood on), Emil Gilels and Eugen Jochum on Deutsche Grammophon (a true classic interpretation, balanced, mature, but for me just a little not passionate enough, anyway Jochum recalls this recording a year before his death as one of the special moments of his entire career), and last but not least Hélène Grimaud and Kurt Sanderling on Erato, as for the piano orchestra no.1 (a volatile and passionate brahmsian fury, a reading of genuine romance, sturm und drang, power and insight). The latter version became recently my personal beloved one for the ongoing pulse and heartbeat of miss Grimaud, not just a pianist, but a musician.

But now Decca surprises us with an ardent live version of these works with the legendary Brasilian Nelson Freire and the even more legendary 250 year old central european Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig (Mendelsohn was one of its first Kapellmeisters!) under the baton of its new conductor Riccardo Chailly: an invaluable coupling.

Chailly has proven himself as one of the utmost exciting conductors of the last fifteen years in the entire world, (e.g. his fenomenal integral Mahler recordings with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra of which he was principal conductor until last year).

Nelson Freire's legend speaks for itself and was for some years probably only becoming more intriguing and glooming due to his absence in the studio during so many years. But don't misunderstand he is one of the true great pianists of the past and ongoing century! Not only a musician, an artist, a sculptor !!! (Listen also to his marvellous Schumann piano recital on Decca, and his recent tackling of the second sonata of Chopin, the last part is blowing you away comletely, a dazzling account).

It's amazing -as to me- how little exposure this new legendary coupling of Nelson Freire and Riccardo Chailly has gained yet in international reviews and critics (there is a review written in superlative terms on classictoday.com).

In any event, these new live recordings, recorded in November 2005 (no. 2) and February 2006 (no.1) reach nearly the ideal: a volatile orchestra, a magister at piano !!!

There is plenty of structural coherence, the rythms of both orchestra and pianist are perfectly chosen, there is an organic, massive and ongoing orchestral flow, there are both so many fiery, volatile attacks and poetic, even carressing passages by both orchestra and Freire, there is a pulse of true romantic power and wisdom, maturity, never getting sticky (e.g. the honest felt andante in the second piano concerto with a marvellous cello solo).

This is a thrilling account that sets the new standard against which any available recording will be placed for evaluation.

The DECCA sound quality of this disc is quite impeccable, revealing every detail!

Buy this gems. You'll never regret!

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brahms Piano Concertos: The Best, July 4, 2007

By 

Hubert S. Mickel - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

I did not buy these recordings; they were given to me by Professor Andreas Schulz, Gewandhausdirektor. I had expressed to him my longstanding enthusiasm for the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as well as my thoughts that the new conductor, Riccardo Chailly, along with Martha Argerich, had interpreted Schumann extremely well. The two CDs of these recordings, along with a few others, were sent by him to the Leipzig Marriott, where I was staying.

What a gift! I had not known Nelson Freire previously. I quickly became acquainted with him through a google search and acquiring CDs of performances of him playing Schumann and Chopin. He is an extremely sensitive and intuitive performer with as good a technique as any living pianist. Riccardo Chailly came to Leipzig after being the conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, an orchestra that he had honed into the clearly world-class orchestra that it is. (I consider the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to be the three best orchestras in the world.) The end result of this combination of the pianist and the conductor are these two superlative recordings by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

The First Piano Concerto is played with all of the struggle, the masculine sinewy sound of conflict that you hear other pianists portray. However, Nelson Freire also finds the poetry that resides in this music. The first piano concerto was written by Brahms shortly after his enthusiastic reception by Robert Schumann. A short time later, in a fit of depression, Schumann jumped off the bridge spanning the Rhine near his home in Dusseldorf. After he was taken from the water by fishermen, he was sent to an asylum in Endenich bei Bonn, where he died two years later. Brahms had to wrestle with his lack of understanding of these events as well as his growing affection for Clara, Robert Schumann's wife. You can hear all of this in Nelson Friere's interpretation of the First Piano Concerto.

The Second Piano Concerto is the product of Brahms' more mature years. It is pure vintage Brahms, especially in the hands of Freire and Chailly. The transparency of Freire's performance along with Chailly evoking the response from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, especially with the dark, earthy sound of the strings, makes this performance so superlative that it seems that one is hearing it for the first time.

The overall assessment is that these are the best performances of both Brahms Piano Concertos available. Admittedly, there are other truly superlative performances. For example, Edwin Fischer performs in a most excellent manner in the Second Piano Concerto with Furtwangler. I have not heard a performance of him playing the First Piano Concerto.

Top performances deserve top rating. These performances are most highly recommended.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing orchestral textures, November 28, 2007

By 

Brian Clever "bclever" (Oswego, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

The Brahms piano concertos are my favorite pieces of music and therefore I
have several renditions of these beautiful works. What was said above about
the orchestra on these discs is quite true. It is beautiful,
powerful and clear. However, in my opinion in all the fast movements
the piano feels rushed, as though Freire is pushing ahead of the
orchestra. For me, this sometimes detracts from the lyricism of the lines.
Even though this offering is quite good I prefer the Emanuel Ax
performances of these concertos.

*I was told a number of times in the comments section below that I was
wrong about this music being made in the studio. That's fine, I've removed
that part of my review. However, if it was recorded live, the
engineers did a fantastic job of removing all crowd noise from the
recording.